7 Things to Pray for Your Children

There is a really great post at Desiring God - Seven Things to Pray for Your Children. You can read the entire post here.


 I love these seven things!

1. That Jesus will call them and no one will hinder them from coming.

Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” And he laid his hands on them and went away. (Matthew 19:13–15)

2. That they will respond in faith to Jesus’s faithful, persistent call.

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)

3. That they will experience sanctification through the transforming work of the Holy Spirit and will increasingly desire to fulfill the greatest commandments.

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39)

4. That they will not be unequally yoked in intimate relationships, especially marriage.

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6:14)

5. That their thoughts will be pure.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (Philippians 4:8)

6. That their hearts will be stirred to give generously to the Lord’s work.

All the men and women, the people of Israel, whose heart moved them to bring anything for the work that the Lord had commanded by Moses to be done brought it as a freewill offering to the Lord. (Exodus 35:29)

7. That when the time is right, they will GO!

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

Be sure the follow the link and read the entire post.

 

Why We Homeschool

FPEA put out a call for pictures to caption why we homeschool on Facebook.  Just for something a little different, I actually put a scrapbook page together of why we homeschool.  So here it is:

This pretty much captions a major reason we homeschool, to be able to explore the world around us on our time, not confined to school days off.  In fact, we tend to vacation while everyone else is in school!  And we get so much pleasure from being able to do that!

This past Tuesday, we took a day off from school and headed over to Busch Gardens for the day.  When we have theme park passes, I always take the kids for a day instead of going to the local fairs (unless it is to see a good Christian concert, like Toby Mac last year).  Even then though, no rides!  Just the concert.

Well, Tuesday turned out to be a gorgeous day and Busch Gardens wasn't crowded in the least.  Let seek, the kids rode:  Cheetah Hunt (3xs); Montu (2xs); Scorpion (6xs); Sand Serpent (6xs), Sheikra (2xs - well Caleb rode Sheikra 2xs by himself); Kumba (2xs); Bumper Cars (2xs)...anyway, you get the idea.  No crowds.  No lines.  It turned out to be such a pleasant and enjoyable day!  And the kids got some math and physics in testing their limits on those crazy roller coasters.

The picture above is obviously from St. Augustine.  The kids participated in the ranger program, completing a booklet and earning badges.  They enjoyed hands on the fort and learning all about it's history.

We have other trips to plan to enjoy real experiences.  Washington DC is on our hit list.  As is the creation museum in Cincinnati.  Mammoth Cave.  Charleston.

Now, we just need diesel prices to go down a bit!  Let the planning begin!!

Take the day, enjoy the kids, don't be hostage to workbooks, desks and four walls.  This is one reason why we homeschool.


 

Why Aren't Women in Love with The Bible?

Abiding in Jesus: God speaks to you through Scripture & hears you through prayer.  - Mark Driscoll

I admit, I have had it with Jesus Calling.

If I have to read one more status update on Facebook quoting Jesus Calling, I'm going to scream.  Seriously. I'm done. Through.  Over it.  Please - no more Jesus Calling.

So why the obsession?  Why the constant quoting of tidbits from the book?  I had to ask myself why because I was apparently missing something.  So many people I know and respect are drawn to this crazy book.  After thinking it through, I think the answer is rather simple.  I'll get there in a moment, but first let me lay out my "issues" with Jesus Calling.

First, the book is written as if Jesus were speaking directly.  The premise is that Sarah Young began to receive messages from the Lord during her private prayer/study time.  Here is what she says (from Tim Challies' review):

The following year, I began to wonder if I, too, could receive messages during my times of communing with God. I had been writing in prayer journals for years, but that was one-way communication: I did all the talking. I knew that God communicated with me through the Bible, but I yearned for more. Increasingly, I wanted to hear what God had to say to me personally on a given day. I decided to listen to God with pen in hand, writing down whatever I believe He was saying. I felt awkward the first time I tried this, but I received a message. It was short, biblical, and appropriate. It addressed topics that were current in my life: trust, fear, and closeness to God. I responded by writing in my prayer journal.

So basically, she is writing down what she "thinks" God is saying.  Now, there are several layers to this.  For one, how can I be sure God spoke those things to her?  I don't know her.  I don't know anything about her.  Simply put, why would I read a book of devotions filtered through someone elses' interpretation of what she "thinks" God is saying to her. 

Additionally, if this is God speaking to her, what do I do with it?  Either God spoke it or he didn't.  If he did we have new authorized scripture.  If he didn't, or she isn't 100% sure, then what am I supposed to do with this?  Sarah Young says:

"This practice of listening to God has increased my intimacy with Him more than any other spiritual discipline, so I want to share some of the messages I have received. In many parts of the world, Christians seem to be searching for a deeper experience of Jesus’ Presence and Peace. The messages that follow address that felt need.”

In Tim Challies' review, he adds to this quote by saying this:

We cannot miss this. As I have spoken to others about the book, I’ve heard some people say that this book is written as if Jesus is speaking to the reader. But it’s important to know that Young makes a far more audacious claim—this is Jesus speaking, through her. The messages he has given her, she now passes on to us.

If this is Jesus speaking through her we have authorized Scripture!  This is new revelation.  Yet, most (I know, not all, but most) orthodox Christian doctrine affirm that the cannon of Scripture is closed.  God his given us his written and revealed word through the Bible. 

Really, stop and think this through a moment.  I mean, really think it through.

Secondly, "IF" this is new revelation and Jesus is giving Sarah Young a new message, doesn't anyone have a problem with her selling the book?  Contemplate that a moment.  If Jesus gave you a message, that you knew was 100% from Him, would you sell it??  Now, don't misunderstand me.  I am not opposed to people writing books, etc.  I love to read books.  My point is that this book, by the author's own admission, is setting itself up to be something different than just your average 30-day devotional book.  This is a book in which Jesus is actually speaking!  I don't know, if it were me, I would want everyone to read it, not just those who can pay the $9.99 fee.  It makes me think of this verse in Matthew:

    And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”
   
(Matthew 21:12-13 ESV)

I'm going to link now to Tim Challies' review here.  You can go read it here, it is very good and further address some of my thoughts.  

Now back to the original question, why the obsession of this book by good, God loving Christian women?  Are you ready?  Because the answer is a dozy.

The Bible IS NOT Enough.

You read that right.  The Bible is not enough.  Sarah Young even alludes to that in the quotes above, saying she "wanted more" and that the practice of listening to God increased her intimacy with him more than any other spiritual disciple.  More than any other.  That would include reading and studying the Bible.

We, like Sarah Young, are all on a conquest to see who can have the next experience.  The next revelation.  The next dance.  The Bible just doesn't do it so we look to outside sources to help bring that experience to fruition.

In Tim Challies' review he says:

James Montgomery Boice once said that the real battle in our times would not be the inerrancy or infallibility of Scripture, but its sufficiency—are we going to rely on the Bible or will we continually long for other revelation? In Jesus Calling we see this so clearly. Young teaches that though the Bible is inerrant and infallible, it is insufficient. It was not enough for her and, implicitly, she teaches that it cannot be enough for us. After all, it was not reading Scripture that proved her most important spiritual discipline, but this listening, this receiving of messages from the Lord. It is not Scripture she brings to us, not primarily anyway, but these messages from Jesus.

So maybe we should take a few moments and review what the Bible affirms about itself:

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
(2 Timothy 3:16 ESV)

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
(Hebrews 4:12 ESV)

and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
(Revelation 22:19 ESV)

The words of the LORD are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.
(Psalm 12:6 ESV)

    The law of the LORD is perfect,
        reviving the soul;
    the testimony of the LORD is sure,
        making wise the simple;
(Psalm 19:7 ESV)

    Every word of God proves true;
        he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
(Proverbs 30:5 ESV)

    Forever, O LORD, your word
        is firmly fixed in the heavens.
(Psalm 119:89 ESV)

    So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
(John 6:67-69 ESV)

There are many more affirmations about God's word throughout scripture.  God himself divinely inspired each and every word, every sentence, every verse, every chapter, every book.  The words are alive and active (as Hebrews says).  The Bible isn't an ordinary book, it the real and living revealed word of God!  That is something to get excited about!

God has gifted many writers to compose books about life, marriage, doctrine, theology, homeschooling, raising children, living pure, living single, family, finances and even about the Bible.  There is nothing wrong with that, so long as the book doesn't take the place of God's word.  So long as the book doesn't profess to be Jesus speaking. 

Ladies, if you find your devotional / prayer life lacking and are looking for something more, might I suggest pondering what God's word is?  Re-read the verses above.  Study them.  Memorize them.  Pray about them and ask God to really search you and show you why your love for His word is not exciting.  He has promised to give us the Holy Spirit to guide us in our reading and studying so we can understand and be transformed.  If you want to hear the pure words of God, not those filtered by someone else, then simply read and study the Bible.  Let the words saturate your life daily and you will experience real and thorough transformation.

I can say from personal experience that NOTHING has changed my life the way careful, devoted and purposeful study of God's word has.  It truly is life changing, life altering.  I look forward every single day to sip on a cup of coffee while studying and reading God's living words.  Read devotions.  Read good books.  But above all, read the Bible and let God truly speak to you, without question, without reservation. 


 

Hostage

There is a really great blog post over at The Busy Homeschool Mom called Homeschooling Held Hostage. You can read it here.

This was something I really needed to read because I fall victim to this day after day.

Funny thing, each year I say "we will make time for field trips."  But, field trips never seem to make it into our schedule.  And yes, I totally get the co-op thing....struggling with that this year, an abundance of work for my oldest simply because she is "dialectic" now.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE our co-op.  I love the two families we are in a co-op with.  And I love Tapestry of Grace, although it is a very detailed curriculum.  Pressure is certainly rising....my oldest is now 6th grade, won't be long before we will be counting credits for High School.  I admit, the thought of dual enrollment has been on the radar, hoping for an Associates Degree by the time she graduates High School.

I know there is room for improvement.  When my son is no longer paying attention to his 5th book on the Holocaust, we should jump on our bikes and take a stroll around the neighborhood.  The weather has been so gorgeous outside lately, we could spend time reading out by the pool - or let the kids do their work in their fort.  As the pool heats up, we can do work with our feet dangling in the water (this we have done before).  Now, we do our read alouds on our couch, but even this is new this year as I have always done everything in our school room.  I thought, we had a school room we need to use it.  This shift around the house to do school has allowed me the freedom to move the schoolroom and make it a bedroom for one of our children.

And field trips....well if I honestly look at it, we do field trips just not really in a traditional way.  We take our vacations during the school year (a week in the mountains), we take long weekends to camp and do take time off for those days.  We hit amusement parks.  The Florida State Fair is going on right now and our county schools had a "fair day." I don't do fairs.  I cannot stand them actually, so I told my kids if we can skip the fair, we will take a day off school to go to Busch Gardens.  Its cleaner, the food is healthier and the rides are safer.  Now, I just have to schedule that trip.

Bible.  Guilty.  I was awful about not doing Bible for the right reasons.  I did realize this though and we have changed our motivation and attitude towards Bible.  My oldest started her first Precept Upon Precept on Esther, which she is loving.  I got my youngest the Jesus Storybook for the iPad, which reads it to her.  And my son is working on Precept Discover for Yourselves on John.  Now, none of this matters if our heart is still just a checklist.  Teaching God's word should be the center of what we do and creating a Christian Biblical worldview, which is exactly the heart of our co-op.  We teach history and literature through a Biblical worldview and our homeschool needs to be the same.

Anyway, the article is good and brings up things I have not been so good at doing.  So today is a new day to enjoy and remember why we started homeschooling!


 

Esther Journal

I saw a really neat idea floating on Facebook recently.  I began doing something like this over this past summer.  My oldest daughter competed in the National Bible Bee and both her and I worked on the Sword Study.  One of the things we did was write a little bit of 2 Timothy everyday.

Anyway, it came to mind recently as I saw someone doing this same type of thing on Facebook with a group of people.   The idea is to write Scripture and it is based on Deuteronomy 17:18.  There are journals called Journible you can purchase here.

I decided to create my own.  In two weeks, we will begin the Precept Upon Precept study of the book of Esther.  I wanted to create a journal for our class so the students can also try writing the book of Esther with me also.  The idea is to write a little bit of Scripture everyday. The point is to be purposeful in writing the text, paying attention to what your writing.  Of course, with Precept classes, you read and mark the text but this is focused on actually writing - just as the Scribes used to do.

My journal has 3 pages to start (remember, this is my first one, I'm sure they will progress as I work through this, but needed a starting point).  Of course, the first is a title page.  The second has a lined space on the side to copy the scripture and then blank spaces to write any notes or cross references.  The third page is simply lined to copy the text.

I'm sharing it free here on my blog.  Feel free to download, print as many pages as you need, and give me feedback on how its working or what else you would like.  I've seen some on other blogs that are topical, but since I love to study book by book, I felt this would be the best place to start.  I would love for a few of you to try it.  You can print on parchment paper (which I was so excited to see Wal Mart carry) and then bind or put in a 3 ring binder or folder....whatever works best for you.  Parchment paper gives it a more journal feel I think.

I'm excited to add this to my morning routine!

You can download it here.

 

Another Big Project

We are quickly growing out of our house. As our children grow (and I mean literally grow from day to day) - we are forced to look at some options for our housing situation.

Seeing how my husband and I both work from home and I homeschool - a school/office room really seems like a must. Now, my oldest is begging for her own room. She is maturing into a teen rather quickly and while I realize she can survive sharing a room with her sister, I also understand her desire to have some time and space of her own.

 We have pondered a few things. Moving, of course, was at the top. We have tossed this idea around since we bought our RV almost 3 years ago - moving some place out of a subdivision where we can keep our RV with us. However, land is very expensive and we would need to get a fix-er-uper in order to get land. Honestly, we can't keep up with the projects of our current house, let alone a house that requires massive work.


A couple of weeks ago, we looked at a home in our neighborhood. It would fit us perfectly - 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a den - around 2680 square feet. While it seemed like a perfect solution, there were a few things that weren't perfect. For one, it was more expensive than our current house, so even if we sold this one, we would be buying something anywhere from 15,000 - 20,000 more. I'm not interested in taking on a bigger mortgage when we want extra money to camp. Second, we would loose a pool. Now, in the winter, that doesn't seem like such a big deal but as spring is approaching, the kids are already asking when they can swim. If we DID take on a bigger mortgage, it would be years, if ever, before we could add a pool. Third, we would give up our nice yard. The house was on a standard lot. Our house sits on about 1/2 acre, which is a decent lot for a subdivision. And Finally, we began to realize a harsh reality of the economy.....we probably can't qualify for a loan. Both of us have worked as contractors for the last few years. It will be a few years before we can have enough proof on income to move.

So we decided to refinance our current home. Interest rates are so low right now, we can actually do a 15 year loan. We are eligible for a VA Streamline loan, which means no income verification. Now, how to deal with our problem..... We decided to have my handy husband build a "school room / office" in our 3rd car garage. He can pretty much build the room himself with only the expense of materials. Then we are going to take our current school room (which is a den) and transform it into a bedroom for Delena. Now, this room has no closets, so I've been searching the web for ideas on how to deal with a no closet room. We are thinking something along the lines of beach/shabby chic. Still looking around for the perfect bedding set. We are going to paint the rooms and she is really excited. I feel relieved to know we have a solution. Its not perfect, because the new school room won't have a window in it but we aren't spending as much time in our school room as we once did. The kids are at a point now where they have to be in different rooms to work anyway.

And to make Taya somewhat happy to be getting her own room, she will be getting a new bedding set also. My friend from church gave us this awesome Pottery Barn Kids set for Taya. It has the matching curtains and lamp! Her room will be cute too and I'm super excited to get it done!!!

I don't think we will have to repaint Taya's room at all! Maybe just touch up some spots but this bedding will match her room perfectly.


I will post before and after pictures as we work through the change.  I guess that is part of having a house...always having a project.  Now, if we could just someway solve the bathroom problem!!

And if anyone is interested, I have a post up at Laced With Grace today.  You can read it here.


 

President Obama's Pro Life Message...

Saw this video on Denny Burk's blog (he re-posted from Justin Taylor). Really, if the President's words would apply to the abortion issue - think of how many innocent children could be saved. Very humbling, very chilling....